Lesser evil voting is a defensive action, and it necessarily loses ground politically because it institutionalizes and normalizes the evils which were once objectionable. This is quite clearly seen by the Obomba Administration's normalization of Bush era policies.

The speculation that a Romney/Ryan Administration e.g., would have been worse, is nothing but speculation. With the Obomba administration, we have a drone assassination program, extra-judicial killing of American citizens, continued US military aggression around the world, record setting bailouts to Wall St., record setting deportations, attacks on whistle blowers, attacks on press freedoms, and on and on and on.... How much worse does it need to get before you won't endorse a quasi-fascist, if not genuinely fascist, Democratic candidate?

Another problem with the lesser evil voting is that it makes decent people feel like they are doing something good when they're not. It feeds the illusion the system needs to sustain itself. In some ways, wouldn't it be better to have the contradictions and conflicts expressed clearly so that people can raise their consciousness and resist? I recall having conversations with liberal friends during the Bush years, and they expressed their worry about the direction the country was taking.

Yet, with Obomba who has embraced and extended Bush era policies, these same people are still staunch Obomba supporters and will support whatever Dem Party candidate that is ultimately put in front of them. They then go right back to back to sleep every cycle when "their Democrat" gets in.

Finally, yet another problem with lesser evil voting is the erosion of personal political integrity which takes place- erosion of integrity means playing a game with which you don't agree. You compromise, and compromise, and compromise. Then, as Milton Mayer describes in his book, "They Thought They Were Free":

"Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair."

Amazing: the idea that comparing media from one hegemon to the media of a wanna-be hegemon! Information, said the former librarian, is only as good as its counterpoint. Think about it for a moment. What is this site?

In my opinion it is an information aggregator - in which a position is explained and then others bring both supporting and opposing views. The negative is, of course, the negativism of the exchange. But, much like the moniker about 'whiskey' and 'bar flies,' it is a reality that a debate in a bar where whiskey and other brew are on hand, the discussion can (almost inevitably) become rancorous. Such rancor is to be expected, though not necessarily stifled. The Moon himself is much like the bar-tender: he can throw your ass out of the discussion if he objects to the point of view expressed, or the terms in which they are expressed. [I'm still a bit confused by what the actual position of Moon is when he pitches someone out of his bar/blog. But that is my problem, clearly not his. He owns the blog/bar and is only answerable to himself. If he becomes too restrictive his patrons will leave. If he's too open he runs the risk of having his bar/blog turn into a bar fight.]
But, back to the main point: it is as much what his patrons bring to the discussion as it is what Moon shares to get the discussion rolling. Thus, it is probably the best way to deal with complex subjects.

i want to post a link to an article that the poster "grieved" shared last night in the previous open thread...it's excellent article on some of the usa-cia-syria history that i found especially fascinating...

WOW!
We made it all the way to post #6 before someone (allen) broke the request by B to avoid the election. Now we get to see whether B asks him to leave the bar because he broke the rule! Maybe what we need to do, if I may be so bold, is ask B to start a thread on the current election - in hopes that maybe that will get the quadrennial charade out of every ones system?

Nah. I think we actually enjoy ranting about the US system of non-democracy. Not that anyone has the huevos to do anything about it. Much like rooting for a football team ... when their team loses, everyone goes back to the dreaded dullness of their lives that was only avoided by rooting for their team. The winners have a brief moment of euphoria followed by that dullness the folks on the other side feel when having lost.

Why? Because the election is almost a silly as being a football fan ... .

likklemore - good links. I've always viewed the EU as the future model for a more globalized world with actual nations as opposed to sates willfully (or via economic force) coming under a larger more unified central federal rule. Eventually it will be the entire globe but the EU is the first model. Idk maybe I'm off - I think it's necessary.

Merkel’s sudden lovin’ embrace of letting in ‘a million’ migrants (of course nowhere near that number, and based on the idea that many could/would be sent back) has always been bewilderingly mysterious, as it shattered EU codes/agreements, and outed her, thus Germany, going it alone, destroying EU unity, etc.

Subsequently it created a firestorm of controversy, with rapes, harassement, in Koln and so on and so forth. Plus objections and much trouble in EU member states (Austria, Poland, etc., creating the migrant crisis ....)

Never posted about it because I couldn’t figure it out. Why would Merkel do that? It was a big swithcheroo from the previous authoritarian posture, that is, scotching *Mare Nostrum* (Italians who saved migrants, see wiki, very poor but gives some description) by refusing to pay the Italians when they said they could not bear the burden any longer and needed financial help, and giving over the whole border control matter to FRONTEX, who are explicitly tasked with controlling EU borders and not more. (Greece is another topic..that is too complicated for now..)

Various explanations were given. Merkel as Mutti with a golden heart (not), the demographic crisis in Germany and the need for young immigrants (these could have been let in legally, no prob), pressure from the biz community for new ‘special status’ cheap workers outside of present German employee legislation, actually was suggested by several mega-biz types. I suppose they just saw an opportunity and it was post hoc.

I had been surprised to (re-)discover that the murder of Patrice Lumumba took place only a few days after President Kennedy's inauguration, so had gone looking for articles related to that. There's a lot in this one as well, even though it is several years back.

I must say that I enjoy reading this; the site absolutely bombs the reader with ads. I use uBlock Origin, thankfully, but it's outrageous. Its journalistic ethos is obviously to throw as much crap at the walls on a constant basis in order to maintain readership (and generate ad revenue).. That is not unlike any other 'news' website, but it's not something I like either

According to this site, the Syrian refugee crisis began in April 2011 ... of course there were hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria before then (and I believe Lebanon and Jordan) whose encampments Syrians joined and there were hundreds of thousands internally displaced Syrians who remained internally displaced for years, although not always in the same place (as conditions changed) ... http://syrianrefugees.eu/?page_id=163

In terms of timing of the international media phenomenon in October 2015, the announcement of cuts to food rations/stipends in Lebanon's camps coincides (and I think cuts had been made the prior fall 2014) due to serious shortfalls in funding ... that was what I contemporaneously thought had been the trigger as well as the approaching winter, increased hardship and the closure of routes of migration.

IOW, I'm not surprised that there was planning by consultants but the crisis had been looming - in plain sight - for years.

There were and are thousands of Afghans and other groups as well as the usual tides of "economic migrants" in perennial transit to a better future as guest laborers.

How much onset of the timing of the "crisis" was a matter of media coverage (and outrage over dead bodies washing up on the beaches of Greek resorts) versus an actual surge in the mobilization and movement of large numbers, I don't know.

"Which brings us to the latest "outing" of Zero Hedge, this time from none other than Bloomberg which this morning leads with "Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge, Wall Street's Renegade Blog" in which it makes the tacit admission that "Bloomberg LP competes with Zero Hedge in providing financial news and information."

To an extent we were surprised, because while much of the "information" Bloomberg claims it reveals could have been discovered by anyone with a cursory 30 second google search, this time the accusation lobbed at Zero Hedge by Bloomberg was a new one: that we are capitalists who seek to generate profits and who have expectations from our employees."

I was curious why so relatively little coverage of Italy ... UNCHR says about 140,000 June 2015 "in country" (I guess rather than arrivals / in transit?) ...
latimes in September 2015:

ITALY is the second immediate destination of most Mediterranean migrant voyages and more than 110,000 refugees have arrived there this year. As with Greece, many opt to use the country as a bridge to wealthier, northern countries.

@13 likklemore, and others thanks.. thanks in turn to the poster "grieved" for sharing that...

i'd read your first link from the other thread and thought it was a good overview on brexit and the usa/cia's involvement in europe.. it kind of ties in with the 3rd link on nuland using a stick now rather then cookies.. it seems ukraine has also been a cia project gone sour... on a larger scale all of it seems to want to dictate the terms whereby europe can or can't involve itself with russia... funny how europe doesn't get a say in the usa/cias meddling... it is non stop and one would think europe is savvy to it, but by the looks of it the euro leadership cares not in the least! at some point europe is going to have to separate itself from it's masters in washington or london - however one wants to define the financial and etc powers that be...

i just finished listening to senator tim kaine ( don't know why it says king on the desk name tag) go over how the usa has no international basis for it's action of sending troops to syria.. he makes the comparison to russia going into ukraine... for anyone interested - i think he makes a very good point even if he is in the minority in the usa - here is the 9 minute video.. he went to harvard law school and says the usa is on very shaky ground sending troops to syria and it's the wrong precedent to set.. i agree with him!

apparently they're on the last legs ... or almost there ... alternative universe or "why didn't anyone tell Obama?"

The international campaign against the so-called Islamic State (IS) group is evolving quickly. As the United States announces a new phase in its campaign, shifting from "degrading" the so-called caliphate to destroying it, the key questions concern what the extremist group will do to thwart the campaign.
"The trend lines which were all going the wrong way are now going the right way," argues Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy or White House point man for the anti-IS battle. I recently spoke to him and Didier Le Bret, France's National Intelligence Co-ordinator, at the Aspen security conference in London. So what indicators convince them that the battle is turning?/blockquote>

But the story that appeared in Israel Hayom, a free, pro-Netanyahu newspaper on Feb. 16 surprised even the German chancellor. "Merkel: This Isn't the Time for Two States," was the headline. That was the chancellor's message to Netanyahu, the paper claimed, during the German-Israeli government consultations that had just taken place in Berlin.

Merkel's advisors were furious. The Israeli premier had apparently twisted her words to such a degree that it seemed as though she were supporting his policies. In fact, though, Merkel had repeatedly made it clear to Netanyahu that she believes the effects of Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories are disastrous. The settlement policy, she believes, makes it unlikely that a viable Palestinian state can be established in accordance with plans aimed at a two-state solution. Any other approach, Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier are convinced, would ultimately transform Israel into an apartheid regime. Netanyahu, however, has not shown himself to be the least bit impressed by such arguments.

Isn't it amazing how the US coalition is taking the credit for the ISIS demise? Early 2015 they were quite happy to sit back and let Damascus be taken by October 2015. Funny what has happened since 30 September when Russia stepped up to the plate and started seriously degrading ISIS. MOD stated they have taken out 29,000 terrorist targets since then.

@ Dean -- yes, sounds like it's gonna be a proverbial walk in the park ... because of the all-mighty-O successful aggressive pursuit of ISIS assets ... who knew? I was flabbergasted.
I also wondered, after I posted the link, if they are going to try to set up the "meme" that ISIS is de-fanged and so now ... the real obstacle to peace in Syria aka the "real" enemy ... drum roll please ... is Assad.
A "health clinic" was bombed last night ... is an R2P authorization being prepared (again?)

I'd seen a couple of references wrt Palmyra saying that Daesh had "fought to the death" and realized -- given the lack of interest by American media -- I had no idea what that meant. [[I personally would have expected large numbers to slip away to fight another day,leaving behind just enough fighters to offer a spirited battle and cover their desertion, as they've done in Iraq)

A quick google got me to Wiki which says that in the Battle of Palmyra March 2016 there were 2000 ISIS fighters, of whom 417-500 were killed ... and the rest "retreated" into the countryside ... (regime coalition 6000+ fighters 195 killed) -- of course, all numbers disputed by various sides, but... lots survived... odd how many didn't fight to the death. wiki link.

at the bottom, I found this gem of a quote: ""United States: Mark Toner of the US State Department in his briefing, when answering questions about the fate of Palmyra on 24 March, a day before the major Syrian offensive, said:

“I mean, broadly speaking, it’s not a great choice, an either/or—but, which is worse, Daesh or the regime... we think Daesh is probably the greater evil in this case.""

2. Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Russia is said locked into rivalry for dominance in China’s oil market. KSA will succeed in besting Russia only IF its oil will be sold in (RMB/Yuan). Unlikely, due transportation costs and priced in USD instead of Yuan makes Russia more competitive.
It is proferred such an announcement by KSA to price sales in RMB will be the final nail in the petro-US dollar’s coffin - unless Ms. Yellen prints to subsidize KSA budget woes.

[.] Finally, there was no comment by the US Treasury on the biggest FX manipulator of all, the US Treasury itself which courtesy of the Fed can move the value of the Dollar higher or lower by orders of magnitude in seconds. Why? Because for now the US "reserve currency" privilege allows it to do whatever it wants,[.]

Well, I was, somehow, able to get beyond the first paragraph of the article only because you recommended it.

As a longtime MoA regular, what did you think of Kennedy Jr.'s interest in the Middle East being due to his father being killed by an Arab? It's 2016 now, and Kennedy still thinks Sirhan Sirhan shot his dad? He must have inherited his brains from Ol' Uncle Teddy.

Do you yourself think the killings in Paris and San Berdoo were blow-back? That's what the media said, so it must be true.

The word "Israel" appears exactly 3 times in the essay purporting to explain why the U.S. isn't trusted in the M.E.

Jesus.

One of those times is in this sentence: "Other than humanitarian assistance and guaranteeing the security of Israel’s borders, the U.S. has no legitimate role in this conflict."

Exactly where are Israel's borders? And tell me again, why is the U.S. responsible for defending them?

I can't believe you posted that link. All this time you've actually had me fooled into thinking that you've been paying attention.

On 25th April Dr Al-Azzawi added: “More war crimes have been committed by American Coalition, yesterday April 24, 2016. The coalition airplanes bombed Rashidiya water treatment plant left side of Mosul city and Yermouk electricity generation station in the right side of Mosul. Through targeting these populations’ life sustaining necessities, the coalition is committing genocidal action towards Mosul residents in the pretext of fighting ISIS.”

If this information is true then a pattern of attacks on civilian infrastructure (power plants and drinking water utilities) in Iraq and Syria by US forces reinforces the fact that civilian displacement is one of the main goals of the Balkanization of the ME thereby rendering the remaining cantons that have oil or other natural resources easier to obtain and control and creating a steady supply of immigrants who will further destabilize Europe.

@33 ken nari.. thanks for your comments.. any link i share that i say i really like it not a blanket endorsement for all that's voiced within it... that probably goes without saying! i've been at moa for some time.. not sure how long!

i'm a canuck... i don't have some crazy obsession with the minuet e of the kennedy clan.. i liked and learned something from that article regarding the cia's involvement in that part of the world i was unaware of... that was why i found it of value to read... the way i read the article the reason the usa isn't trusted is they say one thing - democracy and freedom - but they tow a very different line based on installing dictators and taking out any opposition or threat of an alternative approach that doesn't serve the usa's interests.. maybe you and others knew all this beforehand.. you could have skipped over it too..

as for who killed kennedy - my own thought is it was an inside job.. his son can say what he wants.. i liked most of what he said and found it educational..

as for the last line in your post - it comes across to me like the attitude of a real jack-ass.. maybe you aren't but that last comment shines a poor light on you as i see it.. cheers james

Noirette @ 15,
You ask, why wd Merkel invite in mass immigration? Remember the video of Starikoff when the first immigration wave hit? He pointed out that this is not even the largest wave of immigration that Europe has experienced. And that every country simply abandoned its normal method of channeling immigrants thru their normal process. Except they kept it in place for Ukrainians! That is, the whole "crisis" is preplanned. They were released by Turkey per the plan; they had cell phones; some were even reported as able to access daily money from the banks' cash machines. Also at least one embassy was facilitating the immigration by making inflatable boats available.

But at the same time that it was facilitated, it was presented as an unavoidably chaotic crisis. Remember how the European media hyped this, w pictures of people climbing thru the windows of buses or trains? The press coverage was facilitated-- first to allow the cameraman in an area where policework could have excluded them cuz police were actively controlling a chaotic situation. Instead the police didn't appear to be trying to control it. And media editors presented the stories, altho I wd think govt there like here cd have requested toned down coverage. Instead it was purposely hyped. The attacks & supposed rape on New Years Eve cd very well have been fictitious or exaggerated.

So to answer your question: Why is this being done? I don't know. I can't put words to it, but I sense that it is part of controlling the European population. In the long run mass immigration makes the country less governable by its native citizens; it's harder for the population to unify against the govt. But the short-run chaos and air of crisis I don't know. Probably your woman's intuition can inform you better than I. I don't know what's going on, but I know it's on purpose. Merkel hopes for the top spot at the UN as her next position, so I wd say she's fully on board w the global 'garchy.

Be confident; in your lifetime you will witness the reset. Shadowstats Economist John Williams, who is highly regarded, sees the potential that the $16 trillion in U.S. dollar assets (UST) held outside of America will be sold in a panic. The time draws near as US economy is in serious trouble. Mr. Williams is not alone in his view in targeting this July, 2016.http://usawatchdog.com/dollar-selling-panic-coming-john-williams/

“We have started to see selling pressure on the dollar. It has been inching lower. It’s down year to year now. . . . The selling is going to intensify, not only with large central banks, but with corporations that will be beginning to dump their Treasury holdings. . . . Nobody wants to be the last one out the door when you have a panic like this. It’s not a panic yet, but the potential certainly is there.”

I offer, what will stop Ms. Yellen of the privately held Federal Reserve from priessing another 30 trillion as was done during the 2008-09 to save the western financial system?

Great observers as they are, China has teamed up with Russia on a gold and silver pricing platform.
April 19th , a historic day, China launched SGE and within a few days, gold and silver prices are into true price discovery. Paper ponzi, paper gold contracts and kicking the can as the can becomes heavy -reaching the end of the road- is all the US has to offer.

I also did not intend to bring up assassination theories but rather the attitude of Kennedy towards countries emerging from colonialism and the shock those countries received when CIA business as usual was reinstated after his death. The reaction from Fidel Castro was telling.

Psychohistorian, Much too late to concentrate only on taking financial control away from the 'garchs. Have to take ALL control away at this point. They are now implementing Agenda 2030 and it IS global governance:

"If there’s any solid constant in protean “enemy image” upon which the system of sustainable development must be built, then it would be “overpopulation”, the inherently genocidal idea pervading all flavors of this doctrine. Sustainable development is, simply put, a system of world encompassing control conceived to automatically self-differentiate and develop it’s functions on the basis of fear. All it really requires is one absolute outside threat which cannot be removed but only infinitely mitigated by unified action of mankind. This enemy image is, of course, just an image, because such threat doesn’t exist and every basis chosen by sustainability programmers has a definite expiration date. On closer analysis, the Agenda 2030 document already indicated that “global warming” scare is reaching this date. It was not very prominent among other “17 sustainability goals” and now it is slowly giving way to another cosmic Osama bin Laden, invoked to make us survey and control ourselves through fear: global – or to be more precise: Europe-based – terrorism.

"Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in reducing greenhouse gases, which serve as a basis of reaching the goal of keeping the global average temperature – whatever the hell that is – under 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change (PA, 2.1. (a)), are far cry from what global warming dupes would like to see implemented. While we can detect some sporadic attempts to link “climate catastrophe” with demographical shifts from Middle East towards Europe, it is all too obvious, even to the dupes, that those shifts, while obviously man-made, have nothing to do with climate. " http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/04/29/un-climate-deal-the-joke-is-on-us/

Well, okay, since you're only Canadian (smiley face) I'm sorry for that last sentence.

From your earlier posts I knew that, but I forgot to take it into consideration (another smiley face.) Now if you were Irish or English -- or Aussie like that Hoarsewhiperer -- I'd know you could take it and I'd ream your ass for that link (third smiley face.)

Believe me, any essay that begins "After a (fill in the blank) killed my father, I've had an interest in (fill in the blank)" is pandering to hate. Read anything like that at your own peril, but never, ever, link to it.

RFK Jr.'s essay is classic Establishment Liberal -- "Okay, mistakes were made. How dumb could we be? The wrong people were in charge...If only we'd known..."

The whole point is to hide the real goal which is chaos. Chaos everywhere, as Noirette's link shows.

After doing penance pushing ecology, it looks like now RFK Jr. is hoping to gain membership into the gang that killed his Uncle John and his father. "Yeah, yeah, an Arab killed my dad. No hard feelings towards you guys."

If someone like WoW or that Catcher-in-the-Rye guy -- remember them? -- had posted that link I wouldn't have hit it on a bet, but you have a pretty good track record here, so I did.

Financial control is ALL control when you get down to it. When the time comes I expect that ongoing inheritance will be dealt with as well.

@ likklemore

In 2008, when I saw what happened, I moved my small IRA to GLD from Treasuries......and have never looked backed. Its not a matter of IF for me, it is a matter of WHEN. And, yes, I smiled on April 19th.........drip, drip, drip, drip and then a big sucking sound.....grin

@41 penelope.. thanks, but i am really not into the "who done it" around kennedys assassination! i am not into movies either and never watched stones movie on it either.. i like reading text as opposed to video/movies almost always too...

@43 juliania.. thanks - i didn't think so either! that's an interesting link @16.. i had no idea of the sequence of events attached to the us presidents of the time.. i am not up on us political history.. being born in the 50's and meeting many draft dodgers in the early 70's - most of my first exposure to the usa, was via it's foreign policy of bombing the shit out of countries that the us leadership thought were being influenced by communists.. fear of and the war on communism was subsiding only to be replaced with the war on drugs.. now it is the war on terrorism.. most of all that i see as a byproduct of the usa.. i never saw the rationale for murdering people over a threat of communism, or having wars in faraway countries.. as a consequence i've had a lopsided and fairly negative view towards usa foreign policy since a fairly young age..

@46 ken nari.. thanks ken.. i mostly see that website politico as establishment propaganda, but i still was unaware of the details around the cia's historical involvement towards syria specifically.. that was what i found most interesting as i had never read it anywhere being.. the empire of chaos - yes - isn't that pepe escobars term for it? i do realize that, but as i said, the historical links between cia and syria that were mentioned were news to me.. cheers james

Wish I believed that the collapse of the dollar would collapse the power of US 'garchs.

First, I'm not sure that the currency of a country that prints its own really CAN collapse. Certainly it can fall in value, but I don't see how that hurts anyone except the American people. I mean the bad guys already have their wealth diversified, own tons of hard assets like mines, oil, land, politicians, etc.
Even militarily they seem to wield more armies than the US military. We might go thru an interim period w yuan as reserve currency, but I wd think it'd be supplemented w SDR's, so wd just bring us closer to a global currency. I see no indication at all that it would lead to the dismantling of the control by the banking cabal of all the world's central banks.

The only system which allows people any freedom is a system of individual, sovereign nations, each of which controls its own currency & credit creation, its own immigration policy, and its own bilateral trade relations. Countries must be free to protect some industries and to be food self-sufficient. Even when we get back control of our govt, by removing the oligarchs from power, our vote will be meaningless if these matters are decided by International bodies which have looted our nation's sovereign powers. And the same is true of all other nations.

Today any nation labelled "developing" by the IMF (including Russia) may issue its own currency only in an amount equal to the value of its export income. This is why countries must ruin themselves by borrowing. This is why countries must compete w each other to export, instead of giving primacy to the home market. This is what sets international workers competing against one another.--- Source for the understanding of these matters: http://lit.md/files/nstarikov/rouble_nationalization-the_way_to_russia's_freedom.pdf

@James and Ken - yeah I thought it was an interesting article from a historical perspective primarily but I especially liked what Grieved said "it's good to link to for your NYT's reading friends who except only such sources as credible" that said, Ken you have an interesting perspective that the author is slanted from the jump among other things which is a good counter balance I suppose but a little bit extreme in my opinion.

I don't see us going back to sovereign nations which protect some industries as you say and are each self-sufficient in agriculture. A short study of "economic geography" and current population distributions should disabuse you of the self-sufficiency in ag dream and under who's morals are you going to justify industry protection by any nation?

We need to evole as a species. We have spent centuries now stuck in this evolutionary dead-end of private finance led society and need to try other methods to organize ourselves other than outright competition combined with an inherited elite class.

We have been brainwashed into the manufactured hate and fear filled world we live in. As someone who has healed their fears, I believe we can live differently without much more effort than ending the jackboot of private finance will take.

@46 Ken Nari - what strikes me about Kennedy's article is what almost seems to be a carefully deliberate precision in the way he leaves several paradigms unchallenged, thereby maintaining a sense of identification with his US readers, while at the same time destroying some very large paradigms.

So, as examples I suppose of what we all disagree with: Assad is a tyrant, the US allowed ISIS to arise from stupidity rather than intent, the defense of Israel's borders is at one with the US heart, and on and on. Furthermore, his conclusion about breaking the addiction to oil is hopelessly lame. But these are all throwaway details. It was not to his purpose to challenge these points and if he had, no one would read his article.

Instead, what he's done is plant a huge paradigm, that a covert foreign policy has operated since the big war, and that many of the waves the US feels obligated to navigate are in fact simply blowback from earlier covert activities - in other words, the US has caused its own problems, massacred the innocents, and betrayed its own principles, first in foreign lands and now in its own land.

My curiosity here in this forum was: How well does this work as a propaganda tool within the existing US political consciousness? I'm curious too, somewhat, as to how much he actually believes of the things he says that we disagree with, and how much is simply politically correct camouflage in order to get the main point across - I don't know him well enough to judge. But the facts and collateral materials presented in the article are huge, and I suspect new to many people. They combine to make a damning case against US foreign policy that would be hard to refute. By comparison, the things I disagree with are minute.

Personally, I disagree with perhaps as much as 20% at the very most of the article - and I can see that if someone skims through and touches primarily on those parts, one's view of the article is for total rejection - but the other 80% I find astonishing. It comes from a name that still resonates in the US, and I hope it works on the US, and begins to weaken the position of its covert foreign policy.

I agree with what you say. But I look at the "deliberate precision" with which the article was crafted and see ... dissimulation. All politicians lie. Too bad the kid's got it in his blood. He's running for president. Or dogcatcher. Makes no difference, really.

But I agree that the 'things have been wrong since the birth of the CIA' meme is a good one. I don't know if it's actually in the article, or if I pulled it out, like a rabbit out of a hat, but it's a good one. Things have been wrong since before the CIA and things will go wrong again, if we ever are able to kill the CiA, but right now the CIA is as good a primary. tactical target as any. To get there from here we need admit 'everything I knew was wrong'. And accept the corollary, 'there's life after taking responsibility for your past actions'. In fact, life begins after taking responsibility for our past actions. If RFKJr gets us closer to that, good for us and good for him.

I guess another point to make is that I'm not one of the article's audience, first time around, I skipped it. Neither are you. Just found it in the corporate media I imagine, reading it to keep your hand in. Assessing it for its presumed affect on others, rather than ourselves.

But, James points out, there is a thoughtful and diligent strand of evidence at the article's backbone : Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria. Topical.

Psychohistorian @ 53,
"under who's morals are you going to justify industry protection by any nation?"

You have bought into neoliberalism. It is only since the advent of neoliberalism that it has become unthinkable to protect one's most essential industries. The reason that the EU has spelled ruin for just about all but Germany is partially because nations could no longer protect them. Greece for examople, had been a builder of ships. "Free trade" destroys the economies of all but the most developed. That's what it's for. Infant industries, especially, need protection. Without it, you'll not have any.

Most countries were food self-sufficient until the advent of neoliberalism. We have been propagandized to believe that it is difficult to raise enough food to feed the world. We are right now raising enough, but it is destroyed to support prices..

We are not going to return to the Middle Ages with a bunch of warring nation states and I have not bought into any sort of ...ism. And I especially despise protectionism of any sort.

Talk about nations protecting its culture and I will agree with you. But talk about limiting global communication, cooperation and exchange is backwards. It won't go away and can become the lifeblood of civilization as we share our joint cultural wealth figuring out ways to get along and grow as a species.

At this rate, the coming year will see more than 1.8 million refugees arriving in Germany – and that’s without taking into account the impact of Russian military intervention in Syria.

No mention of the US/EU/NATO devastation and destruction of Syria as the ultimate source of the refugees. The Big Omission, the big deceit ... Barack Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate ... same page.

Meanwhile, German politicians keep repeating that there has to be a “European solution,” as if another EU conference might produce a solution like a genie from a magic lamp. This will not happen.

It is eminently clear today that it will be many years before any refugees can return to Syria, back to communities now destroyed beyond recognition.

Point number one seen in Soros' crystal ball : we devastated and destroyed Syria and it's damn well going to stay devastated and destroyed.

[C]urrent suggestions that Turkey should do more fail to explain either how Turkey might stop Syrian refugees crossing the Aegean or why it might try to do more than it already does.

How: Stop fueling the devastation and destruction of Syria by al-CIAduh and Daesh.

Why: Because even with Soros'/Merkel's 'help' Turkey will be hard pressed - civil war will cause its collapse.

The Plan

Germany accepts a half million refugees this year (per year, starting this year?)

Turkey becomes the source, the guarantor, the gatekeeper for 'Syrians' to reach the EU.

Turkey is declared safe for Syrians (and Kurds) in order for Greece to be able to refuse them asylum and send them back to Turkey.

The EU pays Turkey a bounty on the refugees it takes back and 'Turkey' qualifies for visa-free travel to the EU (as a bonus, the Turks get to include Wahabist terrorists among those visa-free traveling to the EU).

The Plan's 'benefits'

Eliminating political pressure from the 'pro-Putin far right' in Europe and the ability of the US/EU/NATO to continue to prosecute their joint war(s) of devastation, destruction, and deceit in Syria (and wherever else war is determined necessary in the Middle East).

Why does Merkel go along with 'her' plan?

She's being blackmailed? I'm no closer to understanding now than before I read the article. This seems more like The Erdogan Plan than The Merkel Plan to me. It's certainly not in any way the Syrians' plan.

The posing title is: Settlement of social dilemma in France requires systemic change

The interesting paragraphs for me
"
Although a high level of social welfare has long overburdened the French government financially and hampered economic development, no one is willing to give up a slice of personal interest for the general good of society.

The current dilemma of France has reminded many of similar situations in the Western world over the past few years, such as the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in 2011 when tens of thousands of Americans took to the street to protest social injustice and financial monopolies.

However, none of such movements had a happy ending or achieved desirable results for any parties. They just exposed the systemic failure haunting many Western countries, where communication channels between different layers of society have been largely blocked, making it rather difficult to build consensus on how to address social problems with peaceful means.
"

jfl @ 63, I'm not a libertarian. Of course I'm a woman, w a name like Penelope.
I just think Noirette is especially intuitive. She often sees links in disparate things.
--

Ken Nari @ 46,
"The whole point is to hide the real goal which is chaos."

Ordo Ab Chao. It's the "Ordo" that is their goal, and its form is Agenda 2030. It is being pushed immensely right now. It is full global governance, as wished for by Maurice Strong and by Soros. The intention is to have it fully in place by 2030. It is presented as socialism, but will leave not a speck of personal freedom or initiative or even the ability to know what is happening out of your sight.

"The speculation that a Romney/Ryan Administration e.g., would have been worse, is nothing but speculation."

Actually, I believe that it would have been much better. During Mr. Obama's presidency, I do not hear a "peep" from the Peace Movement! No, it is better for the military to have a democrat for president since then, the part of the electorate wit most "activist tendencies", -- the left, -- gets pacified, or at least, muted, in some way. It is the left that has, in larger measure, a greater problem with all these wars! They tend to be more outspoken. And with a great propensity towards choosing to protest (but apparently only, or mostly, when it is not their guy!). So the military actually wanted Obama to win, during this past election.

Mr. Romney would have been able to camouflage the "crop" that this president has been able to get away with! There would have been a great outcry! I think that the left have been supine during most of this president's tenures! I wish that this had not been the case!

So this is the new resident neo-liberal editorialist at Xinhua, telling the Chinese they got it too good and don't complain, 'cuz it doesn't get you anywhere any way? Look at France? They've copied Obama's latest schtick.

@61

As regards refugees and Erdogan ... they must have some really strong stuff on Mutti. Now she doesn't even get "Eliminating political pressure from the 'pro-Putin far right' in Europe" as a benefit.

The rest of the Europeans are going to go along with this? I guess they still are Occupied Europe, six - make that seven - decades later. As far as the US is concerned it's 'You want it, you got it!' from the Eurocrats.

So what the hell's Erdogan got that the US wants? Help with al-CIAduh emplacements in Central Asia. Going after Russia and China. Gotta be.

I think I have mentioned here before that in 2004 I was told not to say bad things about our then president on international phone calls by someone ordering one of my products and providing me with a valid CIA email address.......

@44 jfl - agreed. But what is the purpose behind the dissimulation? It almost feels like a team effort to craft that article, and if so what was the team consensus in the crafting of its eventual shape?

Anymore, we can't view any communication purely for its value to us as knowledge, we have to evaluate its effect on the world around us. We live in a world of weaponized words, and actually we always have, for millennia. But now we know it, and we can play too.

It's rare we get to look at the meta message of anything. With a name like Kennedy it may be valuable to do so. I don't know. I wish the Kennedy family had the money to fight the CIA for its revenge - justice really - that's a war that would occur in the open and be valuable to the Republic. I don't think it does, so I will watch to see what happens here, hoping that Robert is not the loser from this.

If he's serious he'll just keep doing what he's doing. Drop the run for prez, so he can drop the dissimulation as well. Keep dumping the truth with conversational, topical articles like this one. Any damn fool or sociopath can run for prez ... look at who's running right now. He's better off leveraging his talent and dynastic connections in the world of people who know what happened when, and who know where the documents are to prove it.

"All of those seemingly inexplicable actions from the once-pragmatic German leader appear to go back to her embrace of a 14-page document prepared by a network of pro-NATO think-tanks, brazenly titled “The Merkel Plan.”

"What the newly-self-confident German Chancellor did not tell her hostess, Anne Will, or her viewers was that “her” plan was given to her just four days earlier, on October 4, in a document already titled The Merkel Plan, by a newly-created and obviously well-financed international think-tank called the European Stability Initiative or ESI. The ESI website showed that it had offices in Berlin, Brussels and in Istanbul, Turkey

...

That so-called Merkel Plan was a product of US and NATO-linked think tanks and of governments of NATO member countries or prospective members. The maxim “follow the money trail” is instructive in this case to see who really runs the EU today.

The ESI

The ESI came out of NATO-led efforts to transform South East Europe following the US-instigated war in Yugoslavia during the 1990’s that resulted in the Balkanization of the country and establishment of a major USA and NATO airbase, Camp Bond Steel in Kosovo.

Current ESI Chairman directly responsible for the final Merkel Plan document is Istanbul-based Austrian sociologist, Gerald Knaus. Knaus is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and an Open Society Fellow.

Founded in London in 2007, the ECFR is an imitation of the influential New York Council on Foreign Relations, the think-tank created by the Rockefeller and JP Morgan bankers during the 1919 Versailles peace talks to coordinate an Anglo-American global foreign policy. Significantly, the creator and moneybags for the ECFR is American multi-billionaire and Color Revolution funder, George Soros."

It goes on describing in great detail ESI and its tentacles, players and more. Might help with connecting the dots on Merkel and her seeming embrace of Turkey and their obvious blackmail using the refugee crisis as a battering ram.

I'm still surprised Ken has come out of his cave to absolutely rail against that politico article.what did you expect rfk to say? That his father wasn't murdered by sirhan sirhan and expect politico to publish it? And he should have talked chaos more? I don't know man but I think I'd like to see some of the links you are reading because it must be of the highest excellence.actually why don't you just post some on here some time?

aaaaa at 18. That was :) interesting about Zerohedge. (I never saw any ads, ad blocker.) They have published some OK articles imho, that I read as reco’d from others. The comments, that I briefly perused, were in the trivia pits, and that is a *telling* sign.

———————————-

Susan Sunflower, at 20, yes the migrant crisis was broiling for years. Pretty much ignored … both in the MSM and at top levels…

Turkey does not permit ‘migrants’ to work (locked up in camps more or less) and claimed it had not the money to support them properly, as did Lebanon and others — rightly so. They all appealed to the UNHCR, who could not send enough funds, as the contributions, promised by various OECD countries, for the most part, were not forthcoming. (This is a regular scenario, the promises are not binding.) They don’t say this explicitly on their site (though one can look it up elsewhere) as they like to pretend they are doing a good job and are on top of it all.

At the same time, the black, underground biz of ripping away the last pennies of the migrant’s savings became more structured, competitive, organised, with a semi-settled business model, with competition and collaboration aka price fixing and a monopoly. Prices were lowered but more ‘clients’ were dragged in. A free-market dream model!

Penelope at 40 you imho you are dead right about the ‘hyping’, this suddenly exploded for no discernible reason at all. Though tipping-points exist! Why exactly idk, which is why I posted the RI link.

This brief history of 65 years of ME history by RFK Jr is really quite good. If one wants to dig in deeper I would recommend Stephen Kinzer's Brothers, the story of Allen and John Foster Dulles. This history goes from the early 20s to 1963 or so.

RFK Jr's big picture that this all about oil is really naive but his historical outline is quite accurate. He seems unable to come out and say that Israel has seriously distorted US foreign policy. In addition, after the US and UK finally agreed to let the Arab nations own their oil wells after 1960 it seems issues bigger than oil for the US are the petro dollar (i.e.protect the reserve currency status of the US dollar) and geopolitical containment of Russia, Iran and China. But if he said these three things, as is pointed out above, the readers of the NYT would have run away in horror.

Last year, researchers there recorded faint but extremely promising signs of what could be a new particle that does not fit within the current theoretical model. The LHC is now about to resume operation after being shut down since December for annual maintenance. If its next run confirms the existence of the new particle, that could open the long-sought passage to ‘the new physics’ – and, hopefully, answer some big, longstanding questions.

. . .

For the first time last year, the LHC produced collisions with an energy of 13 trillion electron volts (TeV), far above the 8 TeV it had achieved before.

. . .

The mere announcement of what might be the first signs of a new particle, delivered at the end-of-the-year LHC seminar on 15 December 2015, sent theorists into a frenzy. Expectations are so high that there are already 338 scientific papers on the possible nature of this new particle.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

I believe that better understanding of humanity's place in the Universe generally leads to more tolerant and enlightened relations among and between people.

Re RFKjr.Sounds like illiberal horseshit,that mistakes were made but we will change them.Sheesh.Israels security?What real american gives two sh*ts?Assad brutality?Sheesh.
Yes,the zionists are twisting Merkels panties,hopefully she'll be history soon.
Lysias 38;Yes,the time is right for revelations.Only you know who is capable of divulging it.
How about the witch hunt in Britain,where the Zionists are trying to rewrite history?
All this stuff does is call into question everything Zion is,which is poopie.

Oh, thank you forsupporting national economic sovereignty. It is so discouraging when even psychohistorian who is so much in favor of reigning in oligarchic financial control doesn't understand that nations need more power than simply being able to print and manage their own currency/credit formation. We will have to find some good econ sites & quotes to post-- maybe from HJudson.

Psychohistorian, we have been propagandized forever to think that "protectionism" is bad. But US workers mustn't be forced to compete in every industry against people making 46 cents an hour and having no benefits. I'm not explaining this well. Let me make a few points:

1.Britain wanted colonial America to to supply raw materials to the mother country, and then pay for goods manufactured solely in Britain. Hence, the "Comparative advantage theory of economics. But under this system America would have remained a 3rd world country. It MATTERS what your country produces. No segment of your labor force can be highly paid if you are all producing raw materials.

2. "Free trade" is being used today to protect the oligarch's industries and to destroy those of other countries.

3. "Free trade" as stipulated by the WTO agreements prevented Europe & Britain, etc from excluding the financial "product" of derivatives-- making the 2008 crash worldwide.

3. Food self-sufficiency has been targeted by the oligarchs, often w subsideized US ag products. Also many countries had to give over their lands to producing ag products for export-- in order to earn the export credits necessary for investment.

I am horrified that you think any degree of protecting your own industry is akin to "not cooperating" w other nations, or will lead to war.

We have wars NOW-- during neoliberalism, and specifically as coercion to "open up" nations to to this atavistic system. Trade IS often war today. The NAFTA free trade agreement has impoverished both Mexico & the US.

Noirette: Turkey's preeminent role exists because the EU could blackmail them too, even first ... carrots and sticks ... Turkey has been jumping through hoops decades, you could argue the Ukraine followed both Turkey and Poland's yellow brick road ... chicken/egg

Turkey needs the money and to make good on promises to its own people wrt EU admission, visa free travel, and jobs, jobs, jobs ... They've been playing both sides of the street, see Turkey on Israel for a long time to advance their interests. "Deputizing" Turkey was a no-brainer ... the alternative would be which country?

@68 jfl (thanks for the graphs @75 as well).. i think you're right in your speculation @68 last sentence. read my comment to goradiva.

@79 goradiva.. thanks for the pepe escobar article.. i want to quote some of it here:

"Moreover, in Pipelineistan terms, Erdogan absolutely also needs the Qatar gas pipeline through Saudi Arabia and Syria to gain energy independence from Russia. That also happens to be a major US goal. And that also portends perennial trouble for the Syria peace process.

Erdogan already has the German superpower at his feet in the shape of a groveling, begging Chancellor Merkel. Were Turkey on its way to become an energy power, Merkel would prostrate herself on that Ankara palace golden ground non-stop. The CIA intimates as much, when it analyzes how Turkey will keep “expanding its influence” in Iraq through the militias they support, at the expense of Iraq's security and political unity."

and there i think is as good an explanation as any for the refugee crisis in europe... regime change in syria would have been easier.. turkey/qatar in particular, are having to work harder for the energy independence/sale.. us destroying iraq was for the oil.. turkey is a key player in continuing on in the same tradition as applied to syria.. dam the Euphrates, keep the door open to isis, shut down independent media, let afgan, syrian, iraqi and etc refugees flow into europe - these are all acts of a country not interested in getting along with it's neighbours! not sure how it ends, but isolating russia is a definite part of it..

@82 h... the refugee crisis is all about money in the final analysis, even if trying to create new energy channels via war creates refugees - people wanting to escape war are a byproduct.. who controls what...

the way i see it, there is some sort of financial war going on here between some big players.. the us$ looks shaky, but i have said this before and could be wrong... physical war for control or sale of resources is another result...

Have you read The Shock Doctrine yet? I think it would help you understand the financial raping of various countries lies at the base of the problem.

Going back to isolated nation states does not deal with the global finance problem

Going back to isolated nation states does not deal with the reality that there are 8+ billion humans on one small planet....get real please. In your fantasy do the currently self-sufficient nations let the rest of the world population die and then expand their borders? Why do we want to grow apart from each other when we need to grow together to save ourselves?

Meanwhile in England the non-existent Jewish lobby is flexing its non-existent muscle. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party is the target of a major smear campaign by the Voldemort lobby and its brothers-in-arms, the Labour Blairites. This attempted coup is taking place in the context of upcoming local elections where a poor showing by Labour is expected to lead to a leadership challenge.

Taking down Corbyn has been a priority for the Voldemorts (They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) ever since he unexpectedly rode popular opinion to become leader of the Labour Party, thereby breaking the stranglehold the Voldemorts had on British politics. Corbyn’s support for the Palestinian cause and his stance against Zionism is seen as a major threat to the thought police intent on maintaining their domination of the British political system. Consequently Corbyn has been subjected to a relentless assault of alleged racism utilizing the same old schtick of equating support for Palestinians and anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

Au @ 83 "I'd like to see some of the links you are reading because it must be of the highest excellence.actually why don't you just post some on here some time?"

You give tough homework assignments.

I read mostly the same blogs everyone else here reads.

Over a lifetime I've worked to learn languages, have gone to college in different countries, and lived and worked in others, so I skim foreign (meaning not English) newspapers online everyday, as well as foreign blogs and the comments. Once in awhile I find something good, but unfortunately most tend to be just as shallow and heavy on propaganda as in the U.S. I travel a lot.

There has been, however, a tremendous amount of courageous, well documented scholarship concerning the social, political, economic and ecological holocaust modernism and post-modernism (capitalism?) have brought. The only way I can explain how many of these works have been allowed to be published and their authors are still alive is perhaps because the oligarchy, plutocracy, kleptocracy or whatever is now so firmly in control the truth no longer is a threat. Also, I understand 60% percent of Americans now read at the 6th-grade level or below, and as high as 40% may indeed be functionally illiterate. Probably less than 1% of Americans are able to read and understand anything by Wolin or Zygmund Bauman.

I have read and can recommend all of these:

Histories and Analysis

The Party is Over by Mike Lofgren
The Deep State by Mike Lofgren
The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbot
Conspiracy Theory in America by Lance deHaven-Smith
Gladio, NATO’s Dagger by Richard Cottrell
Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance by Paul L. Williams
The Politics of Heroin by Alfred McCoy
The Brothers by Stephen Kinzer
American War Machine by Peter Dale Scott
Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by Peter Dale Scott
Mary Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder JFK by Peter Jenny and Dick Russel
An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King by William F. Pepper
Murder at Camp Delta by Joseph Hickman
America’s Secret Establishment by Anthony C. Sutton
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters by James Douglass
Brothers: the Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot
The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh
LBJ: Mastermind of JFK's Assassination by Phillip Nelson
Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty by Russ Baker
House of Bush, House of Saud by Paul Unger
Power Beyond Reason: The Mental Collapse of Lyndon Johnson by Jablow Hershman
Gold Warriors by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave
Our Man in Mexico by Jefferson Morley
The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin
Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation by Alfred W. McCoy
The Global Minotaur by Yanis Varoufakis
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
The Money and the Power by Sally Denton and Roger Morris
The Killing of Hope by William Blum
Blowback – the Consequences of the American Empire by Chalmers Johnson
The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson
Nemesis by Chalmers Johnson
Dismantling the Empire by Chalmers Johnson
Torture with Impunity by Alfred McCoy
Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, Peace Keeping by Frank Kitson
America’s Stolen Narrative by Richard Parry
9/11 Synthetic Terror by Webster Griffin Tarpley
Not in Your Lifetime by Anthony Summers
Democracy Inc. by Sheldon Wolin
War Stars by H. Bruce Franklin
M.I.A., Mythmaking In America by H. Bruce Franklin
Vietnam and Other American Fantasies by H. Bruce Franklin
Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
God’s Banker: Money and Power at the Vatican by Gerald Posner

The LBJ Robot by Mack White
The Power of Nightmares by the BBC
American Gangster (Fiction but considered accurate in Vietnam drug-trade treatment)

Wikipedia (Wikipedia is carefully edited to make sure certain topics get “cleaned” regularly and the most damning parts are removed. Still, the basic facts are indisputable.)

Operation Mockingbird
Operation Gladio
Operation Underworld
United States House Select Committee on Assassinations The findings indicate at least two other gunmen were also involved and that 4 (not three) shots were fired, and that the Secret Service, FBI and Dallas Police lied and covered up. This is now the official Government view, and since 1974 makes Congress guilty of conspiracy theory.
Cointelpro

Not in US press: A Qatari regime newspaper admits that Free Syrian Army is shelling civilians in Aleppo

It says: Tens of dead and injured from Aleppo civilians were killed by gunfire from units of the Free Syrian Army and the "gas canisters", which are called "blind shells", for its inaccuracy, and it--despite killing and injuring tens of civilians--has not killed or injured one regime soldier".